Require new constructions to have a minimum of 25% affordable housing, end foreclosures on first homes, ban the sale of homes to non-residents, guarantee a minimum five-year term in leases. These are some of them 14 measures that Bloco de Esquerda will present, such as proposals to amend the “More housing” legislative packageduring the parliamentary debate on the plan presented by the government.
Some of the measures announced at a press conference yesterday by the bloc’s leader, Mariana Mortágua, are a reprise of proposals already put forward by the blocists, but which never made it through parliament – such as the payment in kind to the bank debt if the buyer says no. succeeds longer in securing payment; or the ban on the sale of houses to non-residents, a measure that was voted ‘More Housing’ and rejected. Yesterday, Mariana Mortágua said she hoped the worsening housing crisis had made it “obvious” that these were measures of “the most basic common sense”. to guarantee the access of the Portuguese to housing. And if exactly yesterday one of the measures of the executive’s plan began to be implemented (support for the payment of tenants’ rent until the sixth step of the IRS, with an effort rate of more than 35%), claims Mariana Mortágua that this is important but insufficient support – “What country do we want to live in when the middle class depends on government support to afford a house?”.
“What people want, more than a state grant, is a house they can afford with their salary. That means houses at reasonable prices and decent wages. And the government guarantees neither,” Mortágua criticized.
for BE the response to the housing crisis must be multi-pronged, starting with curbing the “exorbitant” price that houses in Portugal have reachedI. To achieve this goal, blockers are calling for a minimum percentage of 25% to be allocated to affordable housing with any new construction. In the same vein, BE insists on the ban on the sale of houses to non-residents, when the houses are located in areas of urban pressure, noting that this measure has already been adopted in New Zealand, Canada, or in Majorca and Ibiza . BE also wants the end of visas gold and the setting of a cap on new rents – government-announced measures – to take effect retroactively from the date of their announcement, arguing that the lapse of time between the announcement and implementation of the measures has created a race for new visas gold and rising rents. Still on this axis, the blockers are also pushing for the end of benefits and tax exemptions for non-ordinary residents, as well as the extension to eight years of the IMI exemption period.
As for the rise in interest rates, the party led by Mariana Mortágua proposes to limit the variation in the effort rate on home loans and increase the “Habitar para Arrendar” program, which assumes that a public fund acquires the properties of those who are no longer able to meet their credit obligations, later rent the property to the owner, indefinitely and with a rent compatible with the income. Also on the table is the proposal that the permanent home becomes unattached, whereby the debtor can hand it over to the bank in exchange for the full cancellation of the debt.
Another pillar of BE’s proposals is to curb the effects of tourism on the housing sector, by suspending permits for new tourism developments until 2030, as well as imposing tighter restrictions on local accommodation. In terms of leasing, the blockers want the Tax and Customs Administration, and not the municipalities, to identify vacant properties, in order to make the IMI more difficult; acknowledgment of unwritten rental agreements, at the request of the tenant; leases of at least five years; and the imposition of rent ceilings per zone.
Source: DN
